New Zealand — Home of the Kiwi
I have never been to New Zealand. I’ve certainly heard a lot about it though. Most things you hear about countries are stereotypes, like for example in Italy they only eat spaghetti or in Holland they only wear wooden shoes and stand in front of windmills and eat gouda all day long. Everyone in England loves tea and the people living in the USA are considered to be shallow. If you’ve ever been to Holland, you know of course that the people there do not so much wear wooden shoes anymore, however they still like to eat gouda and other kinds of cheese. So some of the stereotypes mentioned are actually kind of true if you consider that not everyone in Holland likes cheese but most people probably do.
Naturally I’ve heard about New Zealand too, commonly known facts I’d say:
- New Zealand provided the settings for The Lord of the Rings
- It’s somewhere near Australia
- The Native people there are the Maori
- And of course New Zealand is the home of the Kiwi. Not only the fruit but also the bird!
(I quickly have to interfere with my actual thoughts on the stereotype topic, because I just found out that not only the bird called Kiwi lives in NZ, which I knew about, but also the fruit called kiwi is growing there. So that’s kind of exciting, I did not know that yet. Makes all the sense in the world though. http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/kiwifruit)
You could describe the listings as stereotype facts a person knows about New Zealand, one who has never been there and has not put much thought into it, yet. Now, taking a course about New Zealand I’ve already learned that NZ is indeed somewhere near Australia! To be clear it can be found next to the lower right side of Australia, close to the Tasmanian Islands.
So far I can confirm that all the other facts I’ve listed turned out to be true, too. Hoping to find out if NZ lives up to the following article, just a little thing I find funny despite not being Australian.http://www.buzzfeed.com/bradesposito/nz-funny#.drMxP9Nxp
To end this blogpost (my first one EVER by the way) in a serious manner, I am really looking forward to my NZ course and becoming a person who does not only know all of the stereotypes but can also full-heartedly confirm them, by finding out more about the ‘mystery country’. I’ve always wanted to visit it but never had the chance to. Yet.
http://www.mapsofworld.com/australia-and-oceania/maps/map-of-australia-newzealand.jpg
http://www.newzealand.com/us/feature/the-lord-of-the-rings-trilogy-filming-locations/
